“More valuable than helping with money”: How our hands-on support helped ADSA refocus their path
ADSA, a digital agriculture marketplace, faced challenges with sales and team capacity. Through our Accelerating ACT program, we provided 20 days of tailored, hands-on support. From marketing strategies to team dynamics, we saw them embark on a stronger business direction!
- Huyly Hour
I’d like to introduce you to Agricultural Digital Solution Agent (ADSA): a distribution e-commerce platform that connects farmers to markets for local vegetables, fruits, and other products. We first met ADSA through our SAAMBAT Digital Agriculture Accelerator Cohort 1 in 2022, and instantly connected with their mission of supporting Cambodia’s local farmers and communities by promoting quality local produce and establishing market partnerships!
ADSA has already made a big impact. They are sourcing from dozens of farmers and connecting with buyers across Phnom Penh. But like many startups, their journey has faced ups-and-downs. When we reconnected with ADSA a few months ago, their team shared two main issues: struggles with sales and internal team capacity to support their operations. These challenges had become major barriers to the company’s long-term viability.
Many startups would have no choice but to struggle through these challenges alone. But thanks to our Accelerating ACT project, supported by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), Impact Hub Phnom Penh’s team was able to jump in and provide hands-on support to ADSA.
So what exactly did we do?
The journey begins! 4 months and 20 days of hands-on support
“In a startup, hands-on support is more valuable than helping with money,” Hean Pheap, founder of ADSA, told me. You might not believe him, but imagine….
What if you had experts available to you who are not just offering advice, but also standing with you to witness and understand your challenges? What if you had mentors ready to help pinpoint the obstacles holding your business back and giving you personalized advice toward the next actionable solutions?
Through Accelerating ACT, we offered 20 days of our team’s expertise and time to ADSA over the course of four months. Our support was totally tailored to ADSA’s needs: we identified priority areas of support together through an initial diagnostic process.
“In other business support programs, I don’t think the entrepreneurs would be able to have such a close relationship with the implementors or support team,” reflects Lyhour, one of the members of our team who supported ADSA through Accelerating ACT. “We’re willing to go to their place, to really spend the time getting to know them, and to walk hand-in-hand with them to help them.” Most importantly, Lyhour shares, “We really understood them deeply as people – not just as founders, not just as businesses. We kept an open mind to approach their challenges from untraditional perspectives.”
After discussing their business challenges at ADSA’s office in Phnom Penh, our Accelerating ACT team discovered a range of goals that ADSA’s team wanted to work on, like increasing their sales. But over time, we also got to know some of the deeper challenges and opportunities: like strengthening their team, defining the direction they wanted to go as a business… These were the moments we really saw that this was not just about diagnosing problems — it was also about shaping their long-term journey.
From problems to solutions
Through physical catch-ups and several online meetings, our team asked tough questions, listened deeply, and coached the ADSA team to examine the roadblocks in their operations and business plan. “You could just feel the room start to fill with determination, more ideas popped up with intense brainstorming,” remembers Lyhour about one of our early meetings with ADSA. Around the table, ADSA’s co-founders Hean Pheap and Tim Den shared their struggles with their limited marketing capacities, unfilled roles on their team, and scattered operations data.
The first breakthrough came with marketing — our first focus area of support. We dove into their existing strategies, provided training in content creation, and mapped out their customers. We helped ADSA conduct some market research to understand their target customers’ needs, how to reach them, and who their competitors are. We developed actionable strategies for sales and marketing that felt authentic with their mission.
Another significant area we supported was their team resource capacities and team dynamics. We helped them revisit their job descriptions, roles, and recruitment process to help them match their needs with the right capabilities. “It was not just about filling roles, but it was also about building a team capable of growing their vision forward,” shares Sopheary, another member of the Accelerating ACT team at Impact Hub Phnom Penh. “We spent the time and built the trust to look below the surface. We provided coaching and mediated some tough conversations to help them build a more unified, strong team.”
Moving forward with a stronger vision
Each meeting, each insight, each solution brought the ADSA team a renewed sense of confidence — especially because we embraced a “learning by doing” approach.
“This is exactly what new startup founders need. It is a great opportunity for us to learn through action, expand our network, and more importantly, learn from the real challenges. We need to be certain that our startup’s direction, team capacity, skills, access to market, and stakeholders align with our business model,” shares Pheap from ADSA.
The ADSA team has come a long way from where they started. Before joining the AcceleratingACT program, their path was unclear. They were not very confident in what they did, and the challenges seemed overwhelming. Now, they’ve shared that they are maximizing their human resources, better understand the root of their challenges, and know how to deal with issues more strategically. They have started to rebuild their team unity, and the team has become more aware of the value and purpose of what they are doing. Finally, they have more clear direction — they can act decisively, using market research to inform their strategies for growth.
This experience was transformative for them. “This hands-on support program was incredibly helpful and such a valuable lesson for me. It gave me the confidence to believe in my startup’s vision and the motivation to make it sustainable,” Pheap says. He believes that this program is a lifeline for startups. “Even though we still have budget limitations and other issues to fix in our operations, I believe we are clearer about where we are heading and know how to get there.”
In short: “This was real, hands-on support that provided practical help,” he concludes.
We were so proud to have played a small part in helping this inspiring agri-business reach new heights. If you’d like to learn more about ADSA, get in touch with them here. Want to be part of bringing similar transformative support to other startups? Contact us!
We are grateful for support from the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) that made this program possible!
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